CLEVELAND, Ohio -- With the opener in Pittsburgh just two weeks away, Browns coach Mike Pettine called for quarterback Brian Hoyer to step up his game, and for his supporting cast to give him a hand.

"Brian had his plays,'' Pettine said on a conference call Sunday. "He knows what he needs to work on. We need to play better around him. I think that's important. I mentioned that last night. Sometimes the quarterback gets held accountable. He's out there with 10 other guys and they need to be functioning as a unit, fully functional.

"You can have one guy break down that can ruin a play. But Brian knows he needs to get better, needs more live-game reps, and that's the one positive thing about having a short week, we know we didn't play well, but we can go out there Thursday and get the bad taste out of our mouths."

In seven series during Saturday's 33-14 loss to the Rams, Hoyer completed 10-of-16 attempts for 84 yards, with one touchdown and one interception for a 70.8 rating. He was also strip-sacked on his opening play of the second half when he and Miles Austin miscommunicated again. Austin was also the intended receiver on Hoyer's second-quarter pick, which led to a Rams TD.

"There's no sugarcoating it,'' said Pettine. "We didn't play well. There were some individual performances that stood out. I thought some guys in certain areas played well, but just overall that we were very inconsistent, and then the thing that was a disappointment is we were inconsistent especially on third down, both sides of the ball.

"We refer to third down as money down, and we need to be better both sides of the ball and we just had some very uncharacteristic mental mistakes, some technique errors, and they took advantage of it and it added up to the results that we had.''

Perhaps most disturbing about Hoyer's outing is that the touchdown -- the starting offense's only one in 14 series this preseason -- came against the Rams' second-team defense. And Hoyer started the drive at the Rams' 37 thanks to a 68-yard kickoff return by rookie Taylor Gabriel. What's more, it took the first-team offense 12 drives to reach the end zone this preseason.

So what makes Pettine confident the unit will pull it together in time for Pittsburgh?

"I believe in the coaching staff,'' said Pettine. "I believe in the players in the locker room -- that we have a system that we're trying to implement, and you don't get in midseason form implementing something new overnight. But it's certainly no time for us to panic, and I think when we get into true game-plan situations that we're going to take advantage of what our guys do well and avoid some situations where it might not be advantageous for us to be doing things like that.

"I'm confident that by the time we get to Pittsburgh that we'll have a good game plan. We're going to put our players on offense in the best position to be successful."

Pettine explained that he might not be ready to install a package for Manziel against the Steelers because he might not have time enough time to practice it.

"I think that's part of it,'' he said. "You only have so much time to practice, whether it's real practice time or walk-through time. Because we went to the third week, we do feel that we were behind with Brian getting work with the ones exclusively, but it's something that is an option for us. The timing of it will be the question -- when we feel comfortable with it or if it's even necessary."

Pettine acknowledged that Hoyer hasn't had much of a chance to develop his timing with the receivers. Nate Burleson has missed most of camp with a pulled hamstring, and Austin missed all of the offseason with the same injury. Tight end Jordan Cameron is still working his way back from a sprained shoulder, and receiver Travis Benjamin is on the mend from his ACL. Hoyer clearly isn't on the same page yet with some of his receivers, especially Austin, who spent the first eight seasons of his career catching passes from Tony Romo in Dallas.

"They need to play,'' said Pettine. "That's the unfortunate thing about Miles. We wanted to hold him out in the spring a little bit so he missed all that work. We wanted him to be comfortable and to be to a point where he felt confident physically and he's playing catch-up in camp, but we're confident we'll get there with Miles.

"It's a little more concerning with Nate just because he's missed so much time. We still consider him day-to-day. I think we might get him tomorrow for some individual work, but that remains to be seen. I haven't had the final meeting yet with (trainer) Joe (Sheehan) as far as who's going to be available for tomorrow's practice. But it's tough with guys you think are going to be out there and not getting quality reps with them. I've said it a bunch of times: There's just no substitute for that work."

The offense has been plagued by protection breakdowns, dropped passes, holding calls, errant passes and mental errors. A 19-yard run by Terrance West was wiped out by a Joel Bitonio holding call (his first was declined); and a touchdown run by Chris Ogbonnaya was nullified by a MarQueis Gray holding call. Hoyer's strip-sack resulted from him thinking pass and Miles Austin thinking run.

"Consistency (has been the biggest concern),'' said Pettine. "We've had some good plays. But then we just find ways, a lot of times it's self-inflicted, whether it's a drop at a key time, or a missed block at a key time, or a missed read. You have to have the ability to sustain drives in the NFL.

"If teams are consistently making you drive the length of the field, then you have to be one of those teams that can be very methodical and stay consistent over a drive and not put yourself behind the sticks. Any offense that finds itself second and long, third and long, you're not going to be very successful.''

The offensive line is still adjusting to the new zone-blocking scheme, and Bitonio is learning the pro game. As a result, the line has had one early snap that resulted in sack, several holding calls and other protection breakdowns.

"I wouldn't say they've regressed,'' said Pettine. "I thought they did play well against Detroit, maybe took a step back against Washington. Last night there were some issues, but I thought overall is they are getting more cohesive playing together, and to me that's what we need. ...We're definitely a work in progress, but we have a very true sense of urgency.

"If we feel we're not ready, nobody's going to change Sept. 7 and push that back for us. We have to be ready for the opener, and that's why we're going to take the field this week and anytime after that with a very strong sense of urgency.''

Pettine isn't concerned about the running game, even though Ben Tate averaged 1.7 yards on his three carries and West averaged 2.4 on his seven attempts.

"We think we're on schedule with getting it implemented,'' Pettine said. "We wanted to kind of pull back a little bit from Tate last night to get West a few more carries. The passing game was something we felt we needed to work on and also the circumstances of the game when we fell behind, ended up throwing it more than we normally would. Our goal is to be very well balanced on offense.

"That we can be in unpredictable situations where teams don't know that we have to run it or have to throw it. But we're comfortable with where we are. There's still work to be done to get it to where we want it to be. I think Tate is a very capable back, we're very pleased with where West is. Dion Lewis I think has separated himself from the other guys as far as the third running back spot, but I would still say that that job is open."

Despite the fact Rams quarterback Sam Bradford retore his anterior cruciate ligament against the Browns and is out for the season, Pettine isn't concerned Hoyer is coming back too fast. They had their surgeries a month apart last season, Hoyer 10 months ago and Bradford nine.

"I don't feel that way,'' said Pettine. "I think the circumstances of all the cases are different. I have a daughter that's come back from, she's done both ACLs, so having gone through it and knowing the rehab and knowing the process and how it gets repaired, and a lot of times it comes back stronger than it was before.

"I think that's difficult to make a blanket statement on all the knee injuries. Certainly what happened to Sam is so unfortunate. But we feel confident with where Brian is, and I think he'd be the first one to tell you that his knee feels strong.''

Pettine noted several times "the strong sense of urgency'' he expects on both sides of the ball.

"I don't think it's concerning enough to panic,'' he said. "Anytime you come in and you're installing systems that are by NFL standards radically different from what your guys are used to and you have new players in it as well and you're mixing veterans with rookies and free agents and guys are all very new to each other and they're new to the staff, I mean, there's only so many opportunities that you have to get on the field with them and coach them and get in the meetings and we're taking as full advantage of it as we can,'' he said.

"We're confident as we get going that we'll improve by leaps and bounds. ...there's a strong sense of urgency to get it done.''

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